Women who have experienced domestic violence have long suffered hidden economic, financial and emotional costs. In a report published earlier this year by UTS, we found an “employment gap” and an “education gap” that quantified the cost for women of having suffered domestic violence. For the first time, we could put a number on something that had previously only been discussed in general, even speculative, terms.

Using customised data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we found that in 2021-22 the employment rate for women who had experienced partner violence or abuse (physical, sexual, emotional or economic) in the past five years was 76.1 per cent. For women who had never experienced violence, the employment rate was 81.4 per cent – an employment gap of 5.3 per cent. For women who had experienced economic abuse, the gap was even wider: 9.4 per cent.

Even more startling is the education gap. For young women, by the time they are 27, there is a 15 per cent gap in university degree attainment between victim-survivors of domestic violence and other female students who have not experienced such violence.

Our report sets out in detail how large numbers of women have not attained a degree, have left the labour force, have reduced working hours or have taken time off work – all because of domestic violence. These economic consequences have occurred at a time when women’s participation in education and employment has increased markedly over recent decades.

Despite these very welcome (and, in many cases, hard fought for) gains, the economic wellbeing of far too many women has been impeded by violence. Indeed, in many cases, their economic wellbeing has been deliberately sabotaged. Employment and education – the two pathways to higher income and a better standard of living – have been targeted by perpetrators. This domestic violence is designed to disempower women financially, with all the economic and psychological consequences this implies.

How domestic violence restrains women’s professional and educational attainment

Shockingly, many men deliberately try to prevent their female partners from studying or working. The 2021-22 Personal Safety Survey (PSS) reveals that 451,000 women have had a previous partner who had controlled or tried to control them from working or earning money. A further 287,200 women had a previous partner who has controlled or tried to control them from studying.

Perpetrators will physically restrain their partners, hide their car keys or travel cards, rearrange their appointments on their phone calendars, leave them stranded with children by not turning up to do their agreed-upon share of childcare, or inflict physical injuries to prevent them from attending their workplace or university. Such injuries might be disfiguring in the form of bruises or other visible injuries which women do not wish to have observed by colleagues.

Consequently, some women leave study or work altogether, though it is much more common for women to take time off because of the violence, especially if they have dependent children or if the violence is very frequent. For many women, the time taken off is substantial, with the PSS reporting an average of 31 days. More than a quarter of women take at least three weeks off.

Such absences will likely affect a woman’s income and may jeopardise her ability to hold onto her job. The financial costs can include loss of income and reduced super contributions, impacting a woman’s retirement income. Women who do not complete their university degrees are deprived of the lifelong benefits of job opportunities and greater annual earnings. The annual earnings premium associated with having a higher degree is estimated to be 41 per cent higher than that of people without degrees. These women may also be saddled with student debt they will never earn enough to repay but which may impact their creditworthiness.

Our report also examines the proposition that being employed can be a safeguard against domestic violence. The evidence is complex but our basic conclusion is that being in work offers women support networks and access to government paid leave policies. Moreover, the income received makes it easier for a woman to leave, or threaten to leave, a violent relationship.

Enhancing government responses

These issues have dire and often long-lasting impacts on affected women, as well as their children who may be traumatised or physically injured. We now accept, however, that society has a responsibility to try to end such violence and to provide shelter, safety and other forms of assistance to the women and children affected. Governments have a key role to play.

Our report addresses the policy responses required and examines the extent to which those currently in place are adequately meeting the need. While steps are being taken in the right direction, our research shows that government responses remain inadequate. (We have also referred the issue of domestic violence against students to university authorities who have promised to look urgently into means of assistance as recommended by our report.)

Our research echoes recommendations in the final report of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services. The Commonwealth is still considering the committee’s overall recommendation that Workforce Australia be replaced by a new Commonwealth Employment Service.

However, we support recommendation 9 that the “government develop, trial, and implement measures to embed pre-employment and vocational supports within a person’s primary human service, such as…family violence services.” The Commonwealth’s response to the committee’s report indicated that it will “consider options to improve coherence and align service offers across the entire employment services system” including “how to improve linkages with the broader human services.”

We urge that both the current service (and any new one) develop policies to address the employment needs of victim-survivors of domestic violence. Specifically, we recommend that victim-survivors immediately be designated as a specialist category for employment services by Workplace Australia until a new service is up and running.  We also urge the Commonwealth to trial embedding employment and related support services within existing primary human services such as women’s refuges.

The two Commonwealth policies specifically directed at victim-survivors are also in need of radical revision.

The Leaving Violence Program (previously known as the Escaping Violence Program) should be revised to ensure that a greater proportion of the $5,000 payment is made in cash. Currently only $1,500 is paid in cash, with the remainder in vouchers that may not easily be redeemable.

In 2022, the Commonwealth also amended the Fair Work Act to provide a new entitlement: ten days of paid family and domestic violence leave. Previously there had been a mishmash of provisions, some paid, by state and federal governments. The new federal law was designed to ensure that “workers should never have to choose between their safety and their pay”, as Tony Burke, the then Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations said. The 10-day entitlement creates a nationwide minimum for all employees, though some states and employment contracts provide a greater quantum of leave.

Our report provides detailed analysis of the benefits and short falls of the Commonwealth legislation. There are two principal problems. First, there is low public awareness that the legislation exists, meaning take-up has so far been very low. Second, the ten days maximum leave provision falls far short of what most women need. As reported earlier, the PSS found the average leave taken (before the legislation was in effect) was 31 days, and that some women took much longer.

The legislation provided for it to be reviewed within twelve months of its introduction. That review confirmed the need for leave entitlements to be more widely promoted among both employers and employees. It also confirmed the leave was beneficial to those who took it, though the numbers were so small that they scarcely constituted validation of the Act.

The Commonwealth responded to the review in late February 2025, accepting its recommendations about improving promotion and understanding of the ten day leave entitlement to boost its uptake. While the review noted that many stakeholders advocated for a greater quantum of leave, it argued that “more time and experience” with the current settings are needed before recommending such a reform. The government’s response did not address this issue.

Government support for victim-survivors of domestic violence to remain in employment needs to go beyond what is currently available and must be tailored to what the women themselves claim as essential. The Commonwealth has agreed that ongoing “evaluation and stakeholder consultation is needed to develop the evidence base on paid [domestic violence] leave”. We hope that our report’s findings can help form that evidence base to justify further expansion of the minimum leave entitlement.

Addressing the economic impacts of domestic violence on women should continue to be an urgent priority for all Australian governments. Not only will it benefit the women, it will also boost state coffers by enabling victim-survivors to remain attached to the workforce, with all the benefits that entails.

This article draws on the report “The Cost of Domestic Violence: A report into domestic violence and its cost to women’s employment & education”.

Anne Summers is professor of family and domestic violence at the Business School, UTS. Her previous report The Choice: Violence or Poverty (2022) was influential in the Albanese government’s decision in 2023 to reverse the Gillard government’s policy of removing single parents from the Parenting Payment and onto the much lower NewStart allowance (now called Jobseeker) when their youngest child turned 8. The Albanese government changed the cut-off age to 14 which was estimated to benefit around 57,000 people, 52,000 of whom are women.

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